America
Votes--OrganizationFormed in July 2003 for "purpose of increasing voter
registration, education and participation in electoral politics."
A Section 527 organization, America Votes is a partnership of more than
two dozen organizations: ACORN, AFL-CIO, AFSCME,
America Coming Together (ACT), American Federation of Teachers,
Association of Trial Lawyers of America, The Brady Campaign to Prevent
Gun Violence united with the Million Mom March, Clean Water Action,
Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, Democracy for America, EMILY's
List, Environment2004, The Human Rights Campaign, League
of Conservation Voters, The Media Fund , MoveOn.org Voter Fund,
Moving America Forward, Music for America, NAACP National Voter
Fund, NARAL Pro-Choice America, National Education Association,
National Jewish Democratic Council, National Treasury Employees Union,
Partnership for America's Families, Planned Parenthood Action Fund,
SEIU, Sierra Club, USAction, Voices for Working Families,
Young Voter Alliance, and 21st Century Democrats.
America Votes' state organizing directors served an important traffic cop
function, ensuring that local groups or chapters were "effectively working
together and reaching out to the widest possible audience of voters."

President

Cecile Richards

Prior to being elected to lead America
Votes Richards served as deputy chief of staff to House Democratic Leader
Nancy Pelosi. Program director at the Turner Foundation. Founded
the Texas Freedom Network (TFN) in February 1995. Labor and political
organizer, including with SEIU. A Texan, daughter of former Gov.
Ann Richards.

National Deputy Director

Shamina Singh

Deputy campaign manager on the Ron Kirk
for U.S. Senate campaign in Texas. Served in the Clinton administration
as Congressional Liaison for Health Care at the U.S. Department of Labor,
then as executive director of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans
and Pacific Islanders. Has also worked for the Service Employees
International Union and Gov. Ann Richards of Texas. Masters degree
in public affairs from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at
the University of Texas at Austin. Graduate of Old Dominion University.

National Organizing Director

Catherine Duvall

Field director on Rep. Dick
Gephardt's campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination starting
in April 2003. Field director at the DCCC in the 2002 election cycle.
Campaign manager of Lois Capps' congressional
campaign in the 1998 special election in California.

Deputy
Political Director

Parag
Mehta

Deputy Political Director for
Governor Howard Deanís presidential campaign. Deputy Field Director
for former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirkís 2002 U.S. Senate campaign. Previously,
served in both the Clinton and Bush White Houses as Liaison to the Presidentís
Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and as speechwriter
to the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. B.A. in Plan
II Honors from The University of Texas at Austin and Master of Public Affairs
from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.

Deputy
Field Director

Lilah
Pomerance

Before joining America Votes
for GOTV, Pomerance ran 21st Century Democrats' Young Voter Project.
NM Field Director for Sen. John Edwards presidential campaign. Legislative
assistant on Middle East and judicial affairs for Sen. Charles Schumer
(NY). Palm Beach County, Florida coordinator for the Democratic Coordinated
Campaign in 2000. Started in politics in the Middle East where she
taught conflict resolution courses in Israeli Arab and Jewish schools.
Pomerance is a graduate of Columbia University's Barnard College.

Election
Action Coordinator

Ariane
Holm

State Director of Youth Outreach
(Generation Dean) for Howard Dean's presidential campaign in Virginia;
became Northern Region Chair for Virginia Young Democrats in April 2004.
Has worked for various progressive issue campaigns and nonprofit organizations.
Graduated from the University of Utah with a degree in Mass Communications
in 2001; pursuing a Masterís in Public Policy at George Washington University.

Data Coordinator

Chris Jackson

(started Sept. 2004--voter file
access, use and development ) Graduated from Cornell University in 2003
with a degree in Government. Spent the next ten months organizing
for Howard Deanís presidential campaign in New Hampshire, Michigan, and
Wisconsin.

I N T H E
S T A T E S

ARIZONA (Phoenix)

State Organizing Director

Victoria Tinajero

Arizona field director for Gen.
Wesley Clark's presidential campaign. Former executive director of
the Democratic Party in Pima County.

FLORIDA

State Organizing Director

Ana Cruz(Tampa)

Formed Leaders Edge, LLC, a
public relations firm in Tampa, in June 2003. Executive director
of the Florida Democratic Party starting in April 2002. Served as
Sen. Bill Nelson's regional director for West Central Florida and headed
up his Hispanic outreach efforts. Worked on the 2000 Coordinated
Campaign. Part of the Gore 2000 national finance team, serving as
regional deputy finance director for Florida. Managed Bob Henriquez's
1998 State House race, which unseating a Republican incumbent. Worked
on the 1996 Presidential Inaugural Committee. Coordinated the Florida
Latino vote and the Latino Outreach Office at the 1996 Democratic National
Convention in Chicago. From Tampa.

Deputy
Organizing Director

Jeffrey Lerner(Miami)

IOWA (Des Moines)and
WASHINGTON (Seattle)

State Organizing Director

Rob Berntsen

Iowa Caucus Director for Sen.
John Edwards campaign starting Feb. 14, 2003. Chief of Staff to Secretary
of State Chet Culver, after serving as Director of the Business Services
Division in Culver's office. He gained his law degree with distinction
at University of Iowa College of Law in 1998. Prior to that, he worked
in Washington, DC for three years, after graduating from Georgetown University
(1992). He is a native of Marion, Iowa.

MAINE (Portland)

State Organizing Director

Erin Lehane

Served as spokeswoman for Think
About It, a campaign to build a casino in Maine, on the ballot in March
2003.
Member of the Portland-based law firm, Curtis Thaxter Stevens Broder
& Micoleau. Sister of Chris Lehane.

MICHIGAN (Royal Oak)

State Organizing Director

Ray Plowden

Served Michigan political director
on Dick Gephardt's campaign (announced October 16, 2003). Rep. John
Conyers' Chief of Staff since 1995, managing Conyers' Washington, DC and
Detroit congressional offices. Active in numerous Detroit area organizations
including the Detroit Entrepreneurship Institute, Metro Detroit ACLU, Detroit
Youth Foundation and the Michigan Coalition of Human Rights. Plowden
is a graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta and Wayne State University
Law School in Detroit. A native of Michigan.

MISSOURI (St. Louis)

State Organizing Director

Mike Dolan

MINNESOTA (St. Paul)

State Organizing Director

Donald McFarland

NEVADA (Reno)

State Organizing Director

Carrie Sandstedt

Sandstedt previously worked as a conservation
organizer for the Sierra Club in Las Vegas. Conservation associate
for the California Wilderness Coalition. Worked on the Chesapeake
Bay Program. Peace Corps volunteer in Togo, 1996-98. Graduate
of UC Santa Barbara with a degree in environmental studies, 1996.

NEW HAMPSHIRE (Manchester)

State Organizing Director

Heather Stone

Events Director for New Hampshire
for Health Care, project of the SEIU, during the New Hampshire primary.
Worked at the Turner Foundation where she managed an $8 million funding
program. She has also spent significant time in Texas politics working
on health care legislation in the state legislature and on many state campaigns.
Stone worked for the Texas Freedom Network and co-ran her own political
fundraising and event planning business.

NEW MEXICO (Albuquerque)

State Organizing Director

Chris Cervini

Press Secretary for New Mexico
Lt. Gov. Diane D. Denish. Spokesperson for the Mineral Policy Center,
a small national non-profit environmental organization dedicated to cleaning
up the environmental problems caused by mining and onshore oil development,
and to preventing new ones.

OHIO (Columbus)

State Organizing Director

Scott Nunnery

Director of Democrats' NM Coordinated
Campaign in 2000.

OREGON (Portland)

State Organizing Director

Kevin Looper

In Fall 2000 served as spokesman for yes
on Measure 6, the clean money campaign in Oregon.

PENNSYLVANIA (Harrisburg)

State Organizing Director

J.J. Johnston

Executive Director of SEIU Pennsylvania
State Council.

WISCONSIN (Madison)

State Organizing Director

Peter Shakow

Wisconsin State Director for
Wesley Clark's campaign, starting Dec. 27, 2003; previously, starting Sept.
21, 2003, Shakow was Deputy Political Director in Little Rock. Before
joining the campaign Shakow worked as a lawyer in Los Angeles for four
years. He worked in Political Affairs at the White House, 1993-94,
and worked on Clinton/Gore '92 in Texas. Shakow earned his undergraduate
degree in History from Brown in 1992, and his law degree from the University
of Texas at Austin.